I had to lol when I read it she was pouring it into another canister in the kitchen with the gas stove on how stupid do you have to be, the panic buying is stupid the people doing it are idiots because they might be striking over a week away and I doubt most people will not have to refill later on after a few days so makes no sense to panic buy now when your just going to have to fill up closer to when they might strike,

(Original post by Bellissima)
a lot of people underestimate the dangers of petrol.. it's just an everyday thing. most don't use things such as jerry cans etc. so don't know the risks, and the government encouraging people to store petrol in jerry cans without giving safety warnings or instructions was stupid and irresponsible, they are to blame.

No they're not. Common sense will tell you not to be handling petrol - a flammable liquid, in the kitchen, when there is a gas cooker there. ESPECIALLY since it was on.

Stupid woman who got burned. If you never used a jerry can before, you should like the adult you're supposed to be and actually SEEK the safety instructions before using them.

(Original post by scorpion95)
I had to lol when I read it she was pouring it into another canister in the kitchen with the gas stove on how stupid do you have to be, the panic buying is stupid the people doing it are idiots because they might be striking over a week away and I doubt most people will not have to refill later on after a few days so makes no sense to panic buy now when your just going to have to fill up closer to when they might strike,

Except that you don't need a particularly large number of people to start panic buying before it creates a self-fulfilling prophecy and an actual shortage. It happens every time anyone mentions a fuel shortage so you can either go along with the panic or be the one without any petrol because either way there will be a shortage.

The government have managed to cause the effects of the strike just by releasing a few moronic statements - I bet the unions are laughing since they get the desired effect without any of the blame

Maude's jerry-can advice was just plain dumb but I'm not quite so sure about what Cameron said / did.

We're just coming to the end of a particularly unpleasant financial year and if there were some way for the government to boost its tax revenue in the last few days of the year, just to make their figures look better, they'd probably jump at it. In fact they'd jump at it in much the same way they'd jump at any opportunity they might have to increase the revenue for the sort of large multi-nationals who could be useful to them at the next election. Pretty much the way they'd jump at any opportunity to use Labour's biggest sponsor against them.

And suddenly, Unite have dropped in his lap the perfect opportunity. So, a few well chosen words later, his revenue's up, he's in favour with some big oil companies and he's hurt Labour. Just in time to divert everybody's attention away from the pasties and pensioners grief he was getting for his Budget. And all for the negligible cost of people thinking he was a bit of a numpty.

She may have acted like an idiot, but saying this poor woman "deserves" 40% burns is just... pathetic. Show some empathy - we've all done very stupid things in our lives, and anyone who says they haven't is a liar. I am personally quite sad to hear this news, even if she did do something stupid.

It is not the fault of the minister, it is just a horrible accident that could have happened any time. It is not like people taking cans into their house and pouring them next to an oven is reasonably foreseeable!!!

It's always someone else's fault and never your own in this country nowadays for some reason. Whatever happened to admitting you're an idiot and accepting that it was a silly thing to do? It's sad what's happened to the woman and she doesn't deserve to have such horrific injuries, but she could have easily avoided it by showing a bit of common sense.

Let's be clear about this: the government advice was stupid. Maude should never have advised storing petrol at home. In an independent act of stupidity of far greater magnitude, a woman died after exposing petrol to an environment with a naked flame in it.

Should the government be criticised for the advice they gave? Definitely. Should they be blamed for this woman's tragic ignorance? No.